Metro Projects to Employ "Disadvantaged" Workers

February 8, 2012

By Mark Berman

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has approved a plan to hire people from disadvantaged communities to work on its road and transit projects.

"I am proud that the MTA board voted unanimously to become the first transit agency in the nation to use federal and local dollars to create jobs targeted at economically disadvantaged communities and individuals," said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is also the MTA board Chairman. "This landmark program is part of a strategy to deliver public transit projects while creating jobs that will lift people out of poverty and into the middle class."

The Los Angeles Times reports the agreement requires that 40% of the work hours on MTA projects costing at least $10 million will be done by those from disadvantaged communities. Of that 40%, 10% will come from people suffering from such problems as homelessness and chronic unemployment.

Because there is federal money involved, people from all over the country, not just from Los Angeles, are eligible.

"As a result of this groundbreaking victory, Los Angeles is now a model for the rest of the nation," said MTA board member Mark Ridley-Thomas. "We have demonstrated that job creation -- and not the creation of just any jobs, but highly skilled union jobs that lead to a middle class lifestyle for workers -- can and should be a standard component in transportation infrastructure projects."